Citizen TV detectives, get your thinking caps on. With FX’s The Shards premiering on August 5, everyone is going to be talking about Ryan Murphy‘s latest series, the fabulous cast, and the mysterious serial killer lurking in the shadows. Dubbed “The Trawler” in Bret Easton Ellis‘ novel, upon which the show is based, this serial killer begins murdering teenagers in the Los Angeles area.
As Bret (Igby Rigney) and his closest friends, including his girlfriend, Debbie (Hayes Warner), and golden couple Susan (Kaia Gerber) and Thom (Graham Campbell), start their senior year in 1981, the brutal slayings committed by The Trawler leave everyone on edge. The murders start to happen just as the charming but puzzling Robert Mallory (Homer Gere) joins the senior class at the last minute.
So, who is The Trawler? Those who have read Ellis’ novel are well aware of the intense debates surrounding The Trawler’s identity. Will the show unmask this killer? Only time will tell. The mystery has spawned countless theories across Reddit, so we had to ask The Shards cast if they had any Trawler takes.
“I have an idea,” Rigney told TV Insider. “I will say that I don’t know, and Ryan has also told me that I’m wrong when I brought up this idea. But he actually hasn’t told any of us who The Trawler is. He’s the only one who knows.”
Owen Painter, who plays Matt Kellner, is embracing the unknown. “I don’t think it matters,” he said. “I’d rather not have the answers.” Daniel Dale, who read Ellis’ novel, revealed that the cast tossed around theories while filming the show, with some even theorizing it could be Dale’s character, Ryan Vaughn. When he read the book, Dale initially thought it was Steven Reinhardt, Terry’s assistant, who is played by Jordan Roth in the series.
“But then that seems too easy. That seems way too easy,” he pointed out. When we brought up the possibility that it could be more than one killer, Dale added, “If there’s only one, he’s very efficient. He or she, you know? You never know.”
As for Campbell, he knows the show will spark new Trawler theories on top of the book ones already out there. “I think what’s fun about them is that they are for now and maybe forever theories. It keeps you really, really invested about what may or may not have happened,” he said.
See the rest of the cast’s theories in the video above. Book readers, do you have Trawler theories? Let us know yours in the comments below.
The Shards, Series Premiere, August 5, 9/8c, FX and Hulu